Pets - Lesson Learned

[Zach Denny]

Hi All,

A lesson I recently learned the hard way:

I own several multi-family homes in nice neighborhoods, targeting young professionals and young families for tenants. At first we said no pets, but all of our best applicants had pets, so raised our rent a bit and allowed pets.

Advice: always require to meet the pets.

The tenants are great, but their dogs are terrible. They are not well behaved and seem a bit aggressive as well. We are now at the point where we cannot evict the tenants (and wouldn't because they are great), but we don't know what damage their pets could do to the yard or rental.

So always meet the tenants AND the pets before signing a lease.

[Colleen F.]

@Zach Denny good advice, in properties where we allow pets we do so a case by case basis and request to meet them. This is a strategy that is hard to scale though.  Your best bet with pets is charging pet rent and additional deposit if you can.     One additional way to protect yourself is to require renters insurance with liability to cover the pets. 

[Frank LaQuaglia]

In addition to a renters insurance policy and vaccination records from their vet, we limit the size of the dog. we also add to our property rules that the dog must always be on a leash, they pick-up the dog poop and the dog must not disturb the other residents if this is a multi-family complex. 

[Matt Albright]

Instead of collecting a pet deposit, I've seen people have a lot of luck collecting a pet charge + monthly pet rent.  These charges, over a 12 month lease, usually end up equaling roughly what the pet deposit would have been.

Some of the upside:

you don't have to return the money when the tenant moves out

this lets tenants that don't have money for first month's rent, standard security deposit, AND pet deposit all at once pay pet related charges over time

Some downside:

if the things go bad early, you might not get to collect all those pet related funds...

[Andrew Frowiss]

lots of good tips in this thread! I also would like to point out the potential to "Tenant proof" rentals. I don't like carpet since it retains a lot of the pet smell in the home, and it stains. Consider putting down a hard more durable type of flooring instead of carpet. Most of our landlords chose to put a 20 pound weight limit on pets, and charge a non refundable pet fee in addition to pet rent and deposits.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Zach Denny:

Hi All,

A lesson I recently learned the hard way:

I own several multi-family homes in nice neighborhoods, targeting young professionals and young families for tenants. At first we said no pets, but all of our best applicants had pets, so raised our rent a bit and allowed pets.

Advice: always require to meet the pets.

The tenants are great, but their dogs are terrible. They are not well behaved and seem a bit aggressive as well. We are now at the point where we cannot evict the tenants (and wouldn't because they are great), but we don't know what damage their pets could do to the yard or rental.

So always meet the tenants AND the pets before signing a lease.

You are onto a good start but need to tweak your policies.

In reality, there's no such thing as a bad dog. The animal does what the animal is going to do. If you have good renters, they will train and supervise the animal to prevent it from causing problems. If it does cause damage, they will pay to have it repaired immediately and not wait to use their deposit.

You can set limits to what you'll allow. Restrict by size, restrict certain breeds, how many animals are allowed, etc. You can also charge per animal and the amount can increase based on the type, size, breed. For example, maybe a Chihuahua increases rent $25 a month while a Black Lab increases rent $100 a month.

I require they sign a separate Addendum that spells out the rules for pets. No adding pets without my permission, no other pets may visit the property or be "pet sat" during tenancy. No breeding. Keep the animal under control. Report damage immediately. Don't bother the neighbors. Etc.

I actually use Petscreening.com to screen the animals. It's completely free to Landlords and worth the money. It requires vaccination records, age/size/breed of the animal, pictures, and more. It scares away a lot of scammers and it really helps scare away the emotional support scammers.

One more note: any increase to rent should be for the term of the lease. If the tenant removes Fido three months after moving in, the rent still stays the same because the damage may already be done. When they renew the lease without an animal, then I'll consider lowering the rent if the house is in good condition.

[Craig Mitchelldyer]

@Andrew Frowiss I never understand why people only want small pets. Cats and little dogs do waaay more damage than say a lab. I’d prefer my tenant pets be over 20lbs. And no cats. But that’s just me.

[Jim K.]

Originally posted by @Craig Mitchelldyer:

@Andrew Frowiss I never understand why people only want small pets. Cats and little dogs do waaay more damage than say a lab. I’d prefer my tenant pets be over 20lbs. And no cats. But that’s just me.

 LOL, wait till you sued because your tenant's Cane Corso mauls the screeching infant across the street. It'll get SO clear after that.

[Scott Mac]

Originally posted by @Jim K.:

Originally posted by @Craig Mitchelldyer:

@Andrew Frowiss I never understand why people only want small pets. Cats and little dogs do waaay more damage than say a lab. I’d prefer my tenant pets be over 20lbs. And no cats. But that’s just me.

 LOL, wait till you sued because your tenant's Cane Corso mauls the screeching infant across the street. It'll get SO clear after that.

Mauls or consumes.

There are no Pit Cats--only pet cats!

[Bruce Woodruff]

Or you could just not allow pets at all. Lose a few tenants, but still way ahead after 10-20 years IMO.

[Scott Mac]

This:

https://www.nationalpitbullvictimawareness.org/attacks/pit-bull-attack-database

[Bruce Woodruff]

@Scott Mac And those are only the violent attacks or ones that get reported.

[Jamaica Adviento]

@Zach Denny I've done a non-refundable $300 pet deposit with $25 monthly per pet. I pet proofed the house (i.e taking off the blinds and keeping the windows bare, tile or water resistant floors)

since it's multi- ... fees or fines for unleashed dogs and poop found, pet insurance requirements for any fights or problems from pets, poop bag and trash station, signs of leasing and picking up after your pet posted.

If you have garden, pregnant tenants, or walking/crawling kids, you might want to consider no cats because even just the fumes from their urine is more toxic and harmful.

[Bruce Woodruff]

The above post is ample reason why a 'No Pet' policy is usually best....

[JJ P.]

We allow pets and charge per month, per pet.  We absolutely charge, screen and add addendums for pets.  We consider the monthly fee to be about even with the extra wear and tear.   But, young children are hard on homes, also-- think crayons and milk spills-- so in some ways a pet isn't so bad.   We require a deep, professional carpet cleaning, door jamb and baseboard cleaning, and window track cleaning upon move out from all tenants, pet owners or not.   If they don't do this, we will pass along the cleaning fees by taking them out of the deposit.   We no longer hesitate to withdraw from the deposit any fees that are needed to restore our home to it's prior condition.  

Before we wrote it into the contract, we learned the hard way.  We've had tenants add pets one by one until there's just too many.   Once, one lady rescued a litter of abandoned puppies and they grew into teenagers at our house.  These were big dogs and obviously got potty trained on our flooring.  We charged for our costs on that move out.   I would not want a chained dog tethered outside in any of our units and would send a notice if that happened.  

 I don't mind an older trained pet, especially if the owners are home a lot.  A pet owner that is clean, works from home, and dotes over their precious furry family member is welcome in any of our rentals.  That's not a high risk pet.   If we have an applicant such as a retired couple, stable income, with an older dog or two, they are moved in without further ado!